History Main / AltoVillainess

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* Music/{{Mothy}} being [[TrueArtIsAngsty mothy]], there are a lot of characters who fulfill this role in the Franchise/EvilliousChronicles depending on which Music/{{Vocaloid}} he uses. [[IAmAHumanitarian Banica Conchita/Master of the Graveyard]] (Meiko); [[BigBad Irina]] (Iroha); [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds Nemesis]] (Gumi); and [[{{Yandere}} Kayo]] and [[MagnificentBastard MA]] (Luka) are the most obvious examples, but there are numerous aversions: [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans The Master of the Court]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Riliane]], [[AxCrazy Arte]], [[BrokenBird Margarita]], and [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Eve]] all have very high voices, being played by Miku and Rin.

* Music/{{Mothy}} being [[TrueArtIsAngsty mothy]], there are a lot of characters who fulfill this role in the Franchise/EvilliousChronicles depending on which Music/{{Vocaloid}} he uses. [[IAmAHumanitarian Banica Conchita/Master of the Graveyard]] (Meiko); [[BigBad Irina]] (Iroha); [[OmnicidalManiac The Master of the Hellish Yard]] (Gumi); and [[{{Yandere}} Kayo]] and [[MagnificentBastard MA]] (Luka) are the most obvious examples, but there are numerous aversions: [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans The Master of the Court]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Riliane]], [[AxCrazy Arte]], [[BrokenBird Margarita]], and [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Eve]] all have very high voices, being played by Miku and Rin.

* Whenever Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's operettas involve an even vaguely antagonistic female character, it's usually a contralto part (and was always played by Rosina Brandram either originally or in an early Savoy revival). These include the "bloodthirsty" Katisha in ''Theatre/TheMikado''; Ruth in ''Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance'', whose allegiance to the pirates is mostly PlayedForLaughs; and the Queen of the Fairies in ''Theatre/{{Iolanthe}}'', who stops a little short of executing the title character twice. The mezzo-soprano characters, by contrast, tend to receive warmer characterizations than even the unambiguously good contralto {{Grand Dame}}s.

* Played straight in most of Creator/GilbertAndSullivan's operettas with the contralto (female tenor): Ruth in Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance, Katisha in Theatre/TheMikado... but averted by Theater/HMSPinafore with the unambiguously good Little Buttercup and in Theater/TheYeomenOfTheGuard with Dame Carruthers.

* Somewhat surprisingly, {{opera}} tends to avert this trope more often than not, partially because the pitch of the voice is perhaps more commonly correlated to a character's age than to their moral alignment, and also because sopranos tend to hog most of the bigger female roles. Some of the most notable evil or borderline evil female roles - the Queen of the Night from ''Theatre/TheMagicFlute'', Lady Macbeth from Verdi's ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'', Puccini's ''Theatre/{{Turandot}}'', Richard Strauss's ''Theatre/{{Salome}}'', Alban Berg's ''Lulu'', and Katerina from Shostakovich's ''Lady Macbeth of Mzensk'' - thus are soprano parts. However, Bizet's femme fatale ''Theatre/{{Carmen}}'' was originally scored for a mezzo (like Delilah from Saint-Saëns's ''Samson and Delilah''), but has also often been performed as an alto (or a soprano) and thus usually has a deeper voice than her foil, the angelic Micaela, and Herodias from ''Salome'' is a mezzo or alto. Klytemnestra from Strauss's ''Elektra'' is nominally a mezzo-soprano, but with much darker inflections than the soprano title character.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'':
** Sunset Shimmer in has an alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel. , although Sunset retains her alto voice after having [[HeelFaceTurn switched to the good side]].

%% ** RichardWagner averts this trope with Venus and Ortrud (soprano, sometimes mezzo), Fricka (mezzo, though she's more an antagonist than a villainess), and Kundry (mezzo or soprano).

%% ** GiuseppeVerdi has scored both Azucena from ''Il Trovatore'' and Amneris from ''Aida'' as altos (they can also be played by mezzos)

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* Sunset Shimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has an alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel. Ditto Adagio Dazzle in the sequel, ''Rainbow Rocks'', although Sunset retains her alto voice after having [[HeelFaceTurn switched to the good side]].
** The Dazzlings in the sequel, ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsRainbowRocks Rainbow Rocks'', though only Sonata Dusk averts this.

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* Winifred "Winnie" Sanderson, the leader of the Sanderson sisters and the main antagonist in ''Film/HocusPocus'', played by Bette Midler.

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* Ursula the sea witch, the main antagonist in ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', has Pat Carroll's throaty alto, opposing the more crisp and pure higher range of Ariel, the protagonist. The contrast is most clear at the end of Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls", when she commands Ariel to sing. (This is reduced in the stage version, where Ursula sings in a generally higher register.)

** In ''The Love of the Three Oranges'' Prokofiev averts it with Fata Morgana (soprano), plays it straight with Princess Clarisse (alto), and turns it up to eleven with the cook (a bass in drag). He also scores Hélène as an alto in his operatic adaptation of ''WarAndPeace''.

* Mrs. Meers from ''ThoroughlyModernMillie''. The owner of the Hotel Priscilla, she runs the business as a front for her real stock in trade; white slavery.

%% * Miss Hannigan from ''{{Annie}}''.
%% * Mayoress Cora Hoover Hooper in ''AnyoneCanWhistle''.

%% * The Killer Queen from ''WeWillRockYou''.

* Played straight in most of GilbertAndSullivan's operettas with the contralto (female tenor): Ruth in Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance, Katisha in Theatre/TheMikado... but averted by Theater/HMSPinafore with the unambiguously good Little Buttercup and in Theater/TheYeomenOfTheGuard with Dame Carruthers.

* ''Series/{{Glee}}: The more antagonistic roles are played by the actors with lower voices, including Quinn and Santana (altos in the group) and Sue Sylvester. Kurt's voice is also in a much higher range than his antagonists.

* Played straight in most of GilbertAndSullivan's operettas: Ruth in Theatre/ThePiratesOfPenzance, Katisha in Theatre/TheMikado...

* Music/{{Mothy}} being [[TrueArtIsAngsty Mothy]], there are a lot of characters who fulfill this role. [[ExtremeOmnivore Banica Conchita/Master of the Graveyard]] [[{{Music/Vocaloid}} (Meiko)]]; [[BigBad Irina]] (Iroha); [[{{Satan}} The Master of the Hellish Yard]], although no one's quite sure if she ''is'' [[SatanIsGood a villain]] (Gumi); and [[{{Yandere}} Kayo]] and [[MagnificentBastard MA]] (Luka) are the most obvious examples, but there are numerous aversions: [[OmnicidalManiac The Master of the Court]], [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Riliane]], [[AxCrazy Arte]], [[BrokenBird Margarita]], and [[LoveMakesYouCrazy Eve]] all have very high voices, being played by Miku and Rin.

* Sunset Shimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has an alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel. Ditto Adagio Dazzle in the sequel, ''Rainbow Rocks'', although Sunset retains her alto voice despite having [[HeelFaceTurn switched to the good side]].

* Sunset Shimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has an alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel. Ditto Adagio Dazzle in the sequel, ''Rainbow Rocks''.

* Sunset Shimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has an alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel.

* ''Film/RockOfAges'' : Both Creator/CatherineZetaJones and Creator/MaryJBlige play antagonists to the main heroes, and sing in a lower range than the heroine.

%% ** In ''The Love of the Three Oranges'' Prokofiev averts it with Fata Morgana (soprano), plays it straight with Princess Clarisse (alto), and turns it up to eleven with the cook (a bass in drag). He also scores Hélène as an alto in his operatic adaptation of ''WarAndPeace''.

* Sunset Shimmer in ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls'' has a borderline alto voice that gets even deeper after going OneWingedAngel.

* ''Series/{{Glee}}: The more antagonistic roles are played by the actors with lower voices, including Quinn and Santana (altos in the group) and Sue Sylvester. Kurt's voice is also in a much higher range than his antagonists.